Singapore GP – Alonso wins as Massa meets pitlane disaster

Only last week we were talking whether Fernando Alonso can finish on podium. Fast forward a few days and he won first ever night GP after cribbing for whole week that street circuits aren’t safe for drivers. When race was to start Alonso looked gutted but when it ended he had the biggest grin in the world. This is his first victory after Monza ’07 and Renault’s first after 2006!

Massa was 0.6 faster in qualifying than Hamilton at 2nd place. It was supposed to be a dry race with 30 degree track temperature and he was expected to win. The race started nicely for him and he led the race till the following happen: A pitlane incident in which Felipe Massa was signalled to leave his pit box while the refuelling rig was still attached to his car. His car took the the fuel hose from the refuelling rig and Massa joined the fast lane of the pits with several metres of hose hanging out of his car. His misery further compounded when he was given a drive through penalty. Apparently he didn’t pushed towards the points at the end as he has already used his joker (if engine has to be changed before second race, every driver has one joker, else 10 place grid penalty for engine change)

This happened after Nelson Piquet crashed his car and there were several laps behind Safety car. As soon the pitlane opened a fleet of cars rushed for fuel. There was an utter confusion in the grid with Alonso’s engineer saying “not sure what’s happening, just push like hell to the end of the race mate”

The track had few chances to overtake than Valencia street circuit due to bumps. If this track was a smooth as the usual we wouldn’t see passing because all the drivers could rely on getting optimum traction.

Hamilton didn’t pushed for victory as he was taking a cautious approach after Massa was running way outside the points.

Misery continued for Adrian Sutil and Raikonnen (who crashed with 4 laps to go, he needs a shake-up to find form again!)

Raikonnen:

Vettel impressed with 5th place while his teammate Bourdais finishing 12th